A woman who wanted to stop medics giving her 13-year-old autistic son an antipsychotic drug has lost a family court fight. The teenager, who has a severe learning disability, was living in a specialist residential unit and had been placed in the care of council social services bosses, a judge…

Nationwide changes should be made to the way care placements are managed, a report has said, after an inquiry into the "cruel" mistreatment of residents at a care home for autistic adults. Mendip House, near Highbridge, Somerset, was closed in November 2016 after whistleblowers made abuse allegations and the home…

A Labour MP has called on the Health Secretary to act very quickly to stop the "dreadful" trade in "fake medicine" sold to families with an autistic child. Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) raised the issue during Commons Health and Social Care questions, saying the Westminster Commission on Autism was releasing a…

Relatives want a sick man with severe learning disabilities to be allowed to "die naturally" even though specialists say he is not near the end of his life and should be fed artificially. A judge in the specialist Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental…

Researchers at the University of Exeter have launched the second phase of a national survey to help identify existing services and gaps in provision for young adults with Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD). Once considered to be a condition restricted to childhood, there is clear evidence that ADHD persists into…

More than one in five managers say they would be less likely to employ a disabled person, believing they would struggle to do the job or citing concerns about the cost of workplace adjustments, a "shocking" survey reveals. The Leonard Cheshire Disability charity said its poll of more than 500…

Everyone has the right to have personal relationships, including people with learning disabilities. It’s vital that adult social care workers have the right values, skills and knowledge to support people with personal relationships – and training is a vital part of this. New guidance, from Skills For Care, aims to…

Northern Ireland’s chief social worker, Sean Holland, has welcomed a new workshop and resource kit to equip people with a learning disability with the skills that they need to make informed choices and decisions about their lives. Speaking at the launch of 'The Capacity, Consent & Decision Making Workshop' project…